The Handmaid’s Tale – Feminism and Religion

At the end of June, in clear contradiction to the Founders’ intent,[i] the Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, that the President has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for . . . all his official acts.”[ii] In other words, the President is above the law, or, as Justice Sotomayor said in her impassioned dissent: “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

The ruling left many outraged. The people at large do not want a presidency unchecked by law. The ruling becomes even more chilling given the real possibility of Trump – a self-proclaimed admirer of autocrats — returning to the office of the President, and the specter of Project 2025, the blueprint by the Heritage Foundation that lays out the sweeping changes Trump and a faction of conservatives have planned to put in place if Trump is elected.

*with thanks to Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

In The Handmaid’s Tale women don’t
have their own names anymore.
They whisper them to each other
in order to re-member who they are:
June, Moira… maybe even Lydia
Their bodies aren’t their own.
If you are fertile, you are used to breed.
If you are infertile, but clever, you can be a Martha
and cook or clean for men, and their families.
Women don’t have families; they are part of a man’s family.
Or they could be an Aunt, someone who trains
the other women to be docile. To be afraid. To give in. To give up.
Not everyone will get the message, or be able to follow it:
Don’t let the bastards get you down.

The author, Margaret Atwood, made the choice
to not include anything in the novel that had
not happened in real life. Most especially Continue reading “The Maiden Tale of “It’s Happening”* by Marie Cartier”